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Uppity Wisconsin - Progressive Webmasters

February 15, 2010

Yahoo Provides Links to Olympic Rubbish

I still use Yahoo. Well, I did.

While I switched search engines long ago, I use the internet service as my homepage because I like the access to sports, business news, and my email accounts.

Not any more. Several months ago I noticed the flamboyant and exaggerated headlines 'above the fold' usually accompanied by pictures. The link usually was to the silliest and least important news of the day.

Exaggeration and hyperbole are the words that come to mind.

Saturday and Sunday Yahoo went over the top. Here are a collection of a few of the rotating stores Yahoo provided regarding the Olympics. Often the subject mentioned was the topic of just one paragraph in a much longer, but still irrelevant story. Notice that three of them involve security issues and have nothing to do with athletic achievement.

Bye Yahoo.

Tense moment after first US gold -her father, Tom, who couldn’t wait to celebrate with her. Doing so proved treacherous. As he bounded the gate, a security guard tackled him, unaware who he was.

Skier's husband detained -Hormell went to Cypress to watch his wife train for moguls and was turned away at a security checkpoint for not having proper credentials. He then snuck around security and into the venue so he could see the training. Shortly thereafter was found and detained by security for over an hour.

Serious threats made against Johnny Weir Though there are no indications that any of the verbal and written threats from extremists were credible, Weir's decision to stay in the more secure village was an obvious choice.

On Air gaffe confuses CanadiansTerry Fox is a Canadian legend whose cross-Canada run, the Marathon of Hope, inspired Canadians while raising money for cancer research. Michael J. Fox is a Canadian actor who starred in the legendary "Back to the Future" trilogy and has become an advocate for Parkinson's disease research. They're pretty easy to confuse for each other. Right, NBC?

Comments

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I wouldn't put the entire blame on Yahoo for this. I think the ranking of those "front page" stories depends on how many views the story gets. Of course the cycle feeds itself: people are more likely to read the stories near the top of the list, thus ensuring that these stories stay near the top of the list.

My take is, that when the internet started: providers of news and information were not held to the same standards as newspapers, television, and radio. The internet was not looked at as a competitor to our nations best newspapers. As a result, Yahoo(and other web portals?)got into the habit of sensationalizing their stories. It is a habit they continue to this day. I think we must still look at the internet as suspect-still not as reliable as newspapers, television, and radio.

The problem is--more and more people get their news from these internet sources. Its free and our citizens are not being as well informed as they could be. It might be mostly a nuisance now, weeding through the fluff and hyperbole. What about 3, 5, and 10 years from now when there will be fewer and fewer newspapers that adhere to good standards of journalism? As more and more of our newspapers become defunct; so shall we become def----d. Television controls us more than most of us want to admit. The internet could finish the job. We need to worry about being pacified and controlled. I don't think we all will be controlled, but if 51% of our population is-the game is lost. When a certain majority of our population becomes predictable, then we will start voting via the internet. We will rejoice over the greatness of the internet for getting 80-90% voter turnout. The problem is: it will be totally programmed--predictable casting of ballots.

Paul, I checked on the Lindsey Vonn articles and then promptly googled for 'lindsey vonn bikini' to get me to SI's website. I wanted to make sure that there were semi-clad photos of her to substantiate your claim. I went back and checked a few more times, just to be sure.